The Idyllic Joys and Wonder of Childhood as Photographed by a Mother

Childhood is the magical time of running, playing, carefree fun, wonder and awe. The most important decision of the day may be if you want a popsicle or an ice cream sandwich or who to pick to be on your team for hand ball. Looking back, remembering the joys of my childhood is a time travel to a magical place that was lost when adulthood crept in with it’s responsibilities and pressures.

Ask a mother what her favorite subjects to photograph and you’ll be nary to find one that doesn’t say her own children. When I became a mother, that is when I became a photographer. I became obsessed with documenting my tiny bundle of joy and the alarmingly rapid rate of her growing up. Mother and photographer Kate T. Parker feels the same. She began photographing her two daughters, eight-year-old Ella and five-year- old Alice.

I want to preserve the fun and joy of their childhood. I want to show them the amazing, the mundane, the terrible and the great things that they did as children. Childhood is so fleeting and memories are unreliable, but images last. Teeth are lost and grow in an instant. What today is so much fun and awesome, tomorrow is ‘booooring, mom.’ I want to be there to photograph the change. I shoot them daily and have shot them daily the last three years. I am so thankful for those images.

Inspired by Norman Rockwell and his images of the idyllic America Life, Kate documents all the little moments in her daughters’ lives as they experience bath time, play time and alone time. The day-to-day seemingly mundane moments that one day will be treasured in memory and images. It’s photojournalism at its most intimate, a treasure that will be priceless in the years to come, when Ella and Alice pull out the photo albums and show their own children the joys of growing up.

You can see Kate T. Parker’s other work on her website. To see her most recent work, check out her Facebook page.

CREDITS: All photographs by Kate T Parker are copyrighted and have been used with permission for SLR Lounge. Do not copy, modify or re-post this article or images without express permission from SLR Lounge and the artist.

Hanssie is a Southern California-based writer and sometimes portrait and wedding photographer. In her free time, she homeschools, works out, rescues dogs and works in marketing for SLR Lounge. She also blogs about her adventures and about fitness when she’s not sick of writing so much. Check out her work and her blog at www.hanssie.com. Follow her on Instagram

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